Crafting a recognizable brand on social media that resonates with the right audiences is a tall order, something that takes at least a few years and a small fortune to achieve. The same when it comes to manufacturers, especially in the B2B segment, can get exponentially more difficult, but with the right strategy and approach, certainly not impossible.
Even if your business mainly deals with industrial products, and has little-to-no consumer facing interactions, a robust brand stands to add substantial value. Having a fairy-tale brand, with a strong narrative not only helps in negotiations, and demand a premium for products and services, but also doubles as a sales enabler, helping increase conversions.
In this article, we cover the nuts and bolts of crafting a brand narrative on social media, particularly for manufacturers.
1. Define Your Brand Story
The first step in crafting a compelling brand narrative, is to come up with the right brand story that resonates with the target audience, all the while accentuating an organization’s vision, mission, and unique selling proposition.
Crafting a story for your brand is essentially about differentiating yourself from competitors. For example, Plum Organics wrapped itself around the narrative of GMO-free, organic ingredients, while ensuring safe and healthy foods for babies, that parents found increasingly difficult to access.
Similarly, Kobe Steel in Japan successfully carved a niche for itself in the global auto industry, by driving a narrative surrounding quality, reliability, and trust. This, however, unraveled in 2017, following the scandal that the company had mislabeled its steel products, resulting in safety issues.
2. Choose The Right Platforms
It goes without saying, but not all platforms are suitable for marketing and branding endeavors, especially in the B2B manufacturing sectors. There are a few such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube that are indispensable, followed by the likes of TikTok, and Instagram that can be given a miss. Working with a Digital Agency is key for creating a successful social marketing strategy.
The key is to understand your audiences, their intent, and the likelihood of reaching them in the above-mentioned platforms. Sites like Twitter and Facebook provide a wide reach, and host a substantial portion of global internet users, making them essential for all branding endeavors.
3. Create A Content Strategy
The next step is to come up with a content strategy that best aligns with your brand narrative and helps drive it forward.
The strategy should align with how an organization wants itself to be perceived, that is, as a serious, professional, and reputed entity, or a casual brand, that is focused on consumers, and doesn’t like to take itself too seriously.
In the case of the former, the content created and promoted will be fairly uniform, adhering to strict corporate color schemes, while the latter can make use of memes, vibrant colors, and emojis among other things, to stand out and resonate with the right audiences.
Creating content is fairly straightforward, especially off-late, with tools such as Picsart allowing just about anyone to let their creativity run wild. Just navigate to Quicktools within the app, and everything from emojis, to meme templates are at your disposal, with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
4. Measure Results
No brand building, or social media strategy can be set in stone, it is something that requires a fairly fluid approach to keep up with the dynamic nature of social media platforms.
Once your brand narrative on social media is set in motion, it is necessary to consistently measure results, across different types of content, platforms, and strategies, to understand what works best, and what has failed to work.
These inputs are crucial for long-term viability of the brand narrative, and maintaining traction on leading social media platforms.
Final Words
The rising popularity of social media platforms have opened up a wide range of opportunities for brands and businesses across all sectors and industries. At the same time, however, they come with heightened competition, requiring unique approaches to differentiate a brand, from the innumerable competitors that abound these platforms.
